Rougeau show old-style and solid

MONTREAL -- Last night, history was made. In a small, local venue in Montreal
something outright amazing happened. I was shocked. I was amazed. I was
flabbergasted. Last night, I watched a good, live wrestling show. You know,
one of those shows where the millionaires mail in their performances because
they have a live television show to film the next day? Except, you know, the
performers weren't millionaires, didn't have any show to worry about but
this one, and actually tried to entertain the fans.

When I arrived at the Centre Pierre-Charbonneau, a small arena near the
Olympic Stadium, I didn't know what to expect. Maybe I should have, since
this is the third International Wrestling 2000 show I've ventured to this
year. With independent federations, though, it's just impossible to know
what you're going to get. That's because big-league wrestling has become
such a cookie-cutter sport that I know what to expect every time I sit down
to watch Raw or Nitro and every time I drive down to the Molson Centre for a
live show.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of wrestling, and the WWF and WCW happen
to have a really great cookie cutter which I can enjoy week after week, but
it's a different experience altogether to watch something and to have no
expectations, for everything to be a surprise, and a pleasant one, at that.

As I walked over to where my seat at ringside, it became very clear to me
that Jacques Rougeau is getting very good at this promoting stuff. Almost
everything that could have been improved from the last show was just that,
improved.

Gone were the awkward-looking video screens with bad video feed and the
static-ridden audio system used to broadcast interviews from backstage. In
their place was a much better quality sound system, just right for opening
themes, and replacing the backstage interviews was a mini-stage set-up near
one of the entrances, so that all the fans could see the interviews live. No
video, no audio. Great fix.

Gone were the steel chairs in the media section of the seats - replaced,
they were, by much more comfy small office chairs.

Gone were the awkward fire-based pyros akin to Kane's entrance, in were a
more manageable and appropriate fire-works shower type of pyros.

Gone was the unfinished look of the place. This was replaced by a very nice
array of red curtains, large signs marked "Lutte Internationale 2000," and
even seat-number markers.

Almost an hour before the show would start, and before I'd seen any of the
talent, I was already impressed. You have you understand that Montreal is a
city that's gone without any major indy wrestling for a long time, so this
was a big deal to me.

The show started late, but I was having fun so my eyes were not on the time.
Eric Nolin, francophone DJ from CKOI 96.9 FM, as always, served as ring
announcer. He got the crowd going real fast, with his charm, his charisma,
and mostly with the umpteen prizes he was throwing into the audience, mostly
CKOI T-shirts and Koosh/Nerf toys.

It wasn't long before he introduced long-time Quebec wrestling legend (and
boy, do I mean legend) Edouard Carpentier, who was replacing Paul Leduc as
interviewer for the evening.

In the first match, Iceman took on Jacques Comptois, two relative 'veterans'
of this new league. Just so you knew he was the heel, Comptois came out to
be interviewed by Carpentier on the stage, where he demanded applause from
the crowd. He was shocked when that demand was met with boos.

Iceman's entrance, as always was spectacular and well-done for an indy guy,
as he ran to the ring with great timing with his music, ran around a few
times, got the crowd riled up, and then bowed on one knee in the middle of
the ring, raised his hands in the air, and spit out some kind of blue
liquid. Liquid ice, maybe?

Comptois dominated the match early on, using his size and power advantage
over the cruiserweight Iceman, but Iceman countered with some impressive
maneuvers, including a top-rope plancha out onto the floor. Comptois took
control again, and displayed some awesome moves of his own, highlighted by a
top-rope superplex. After some back-and-forth action, the bigger man took
the win, as Comptois executed what looked like one-half of the Headbangers'
finishing move. You know, the half where the guy flips off the top rope and
lands, seated, on his unconscious opponent. One, two, three.

The second bout of the night pitted Drago, the Russian Powerhouse, a heel
from previous IW2000 shows, against Shackles, also a heel of previous shows.
But Drago came out to be interviews by Carpentier, and he just yammered
("Russian," I guess) gibberish and waved his flag around, so I guess
Shackles was doing face duty that night.

This match was solid, one of my favourites of the night. Drago relied mostly
on power moves such as the powerbomb and power submission holds like the
bear hug. Utimately, though, it would be Shackles who came out on top, after
a beautiful top-rope frankensteiner and a really beautiful spring-board
top-rope reversed plancha for the pin.

Match number three saw Little Broken take on Tiger Jackson in a return match
- a return midget match - from the first IW2000 show. Most of the match was
filled with comic relief, but the fans were loving it. Little Broken, who
looks more like a short guy than a midget, earned himself some good heel
heat. Who wouldn't cheer for the hometown hero Jackson, who's seen WWF
action as Dink the clown? Tiger took the win after a spinning fireman's
carry which probably has its own name. Impressive strength, on Tiger's part,
to spin his larger opponent around atop him.

The fourth match, a question mark as always with women's matches - they're
good if the women are allowed to wrestler - proved to be one of the big
pleasant surprises of the night, as Amanda Storm gave Precious Lucy a good
combination of technical and brawling opposition before Lucy scored the pin
with a top-rope splash.

Storm spoke with Carpentier before the match, and infuriated the crowd with
her English remarks, remarks which mostly related to us being 'stupid and
ugly frogs.' The crowd didn't even have to be behind hometown hero Lucy to
cheer for her, but they were anyway, so that only added to their noise level
during this match.

Oddly enough, Storm came out to the same rendition of broken glass that
Stone Cold Steve Austin uses in another, slightly bigger wrestling
federation.

Match the fifth saw Nelson Veilleux take on Ron "The Doorman" Trottier in
what has to be the Doorman's biggest - and only - challenge to date. The
Doorman, as always, came out on a motorcycle with valet "Mrs. Doorman."

Veilleux did an admirable and credible job of working Doorman's legs, but
ultimately, Doorman's size and power advantage were too much for him.
Veilleux caught a break, though, when King Kong Bundy came to ringside and
distracted the Doorman, challenging him to a match at the next IW2000 show.
Doorman, though, stayed strong, and beat Veilleux with the torture rack, of
Lex Luger fame.

In a super heavyweight tag team match, the sixth of the night, the Prisoners
took on Lionel Robert and Denis Gauthier. The latter tag team weighed in at
about 450 lbs. total; the former, over 700.

Continuing the precedent set by the match before this one, the underdog team
of Robert and Gauthier scored the upset victory as cheating by the
Prisoners' manager backfired and he nailed one of his own with a cane.
Robert and Gauthier showed impressive power in being able to lift and slam
the Prisoners, who must way a legit 300 lbs. each or more, down to the mat.

After an intermission, the night's two main events took place, the first of
which, the seventh match of the night, had King Kong Bundy taking on Richard
"the magnificent" Charland with manager Frenchy Martin. Bundy's so good with
the crowd that it takes him one line with the mic to let everyone know - and
convince everyone - whether he's the face or the heel tonight. If he says "I
declare myself God of Montreal," I know he's the heel, and if he says
"Montreal rules!," well, then he's likely the face. And the crowd loves it.

After a lot of stalling on the part of Charland and a good, solid wrestling
bout, Bundy did the job as the Doorman came to ringside and distracted him
just long enough for Charland to nail him with a loaded shoe. Bundy went
down and out for the count.

The crowd was really into it for this one, hotter than any other match, and
the Rougeau's know how to keep them into it. The match went the way of a lot
of tag matches, with the heels using everything at their disposal to keep a
lone face, in this case Raymond, in the ring from tagging out. Of course,
there were lots of tags made while the referee wasn't looking, and the crowd
just ate it up when Ray would make the hot tag to Jacques Jr., only to be
voided by the ref, who didn't see it as he was distracted by the opposition.

They kept at it like this for a good twenty minutes, and Raymond, who's
still in terrific shape, got beat down horribly by all three of his
opponents. Michel Dubois looked to be in fine form, as did the Garvins.

Finally, when the crowd was at their breaking point, Ray made the tag to
Jacques and a three-on-three brouhaha resulted, in which the brothers
Rougeau out-wrestled the Garvins, and a very, very impressive Jacques
Rougeau Sr. out-wrestled Michel Dubois. He wasn't just in there throwing a
punch or two, he was really wrestling, and looking mighty fine for his age -
possibly better than some of the WCW main eventers, whose years have been
less kind.

The finale saw the Garvins ejected from the ring and Michel Dubois stuck in
the middle. After first ducking a punch from Jacques Jr. and then a punch
from Raymond, he was faced with Jacques Sr., who clocked him, knocked him
out, and scored the pin. The crowd went absolutely nuts.

From a wrestling stand-point, the show was very solid, with an emphasis on
the old-style method of wrestling, which basically means clean pins all
around and when you do screw-job, it's with a foreign object, not fifty
run-ins.

From a story-telling perspective, there are several possible return matches
for the next show, which will take place on December 29th and is themed
"Quebec vs. USA." Already set is Ron "the Doorman" Trottier versus King Kong
Bundy, which should be great, and who knows who else we'll see?

IW2000 is coming along nicely as an independent federation, and it's nice to
see Jacques Rougeau, whom Edouard Carpentier rightly called 'one of the
bravest men in wrestling today,' finally have some success as a promoter. At
this rate, it will only continue.